The 'Word of God' (some claim)

But He (Jesus) turned and said to Peter, Get behind me, Satan!Matt 16:23 new king jamesFirstly, what was Jesus inferring?
Secondly, if I switched some of the words to:But He (Gzus) turned and said to Dieter, Get behind me, George!Pat 16:23 new king GzusAnd read them to an illiterate Hutu tribesman in Rwanda, how would he know which one was correct?How about a more subtle change?
I am the way, the truth and the life, no one comes the father except through me
I am the truth, the way, and the life, no one comes the father except through meNow, without looking at your bible, which sentence is the word of God? (Christian)
‘I am driving out from before you the Amorite and the Canaanite and the Hittite’
‘I am driving out from before you the Ammonite and the Canaanite and the Hittite’So, going back to the Hutu tribesman in Rwanda. If I were to change all of the instances of the word Jesus to Gzus and all of the instances of the word Satan to George, and all of the instances of God to Sod, he would not be able to tell the difference. What if I took out the books of Mark, Psalms and John? What if I switched the words good and evil? What if I added an extra book? How do you know that the New Testament isn’t just an addition, like the book of Mormon? How do you know that Satan isn’t God and God isn’t Satan? How do you know anything for that matter?What is the difference between the illiterate Hutu tribesman in Rwanda and the illiterate Germanic tribesmen in Northern Europe?When you quote the bible, are you really quoting the word of God, or is it just another book?

urgh... you scare me...I didn't know one can do that... especially when somebody actually did that in the past. Now we are the descendants of that Hutu tribesman you deceived...[shudders from some chilling prospects]

How true.It seems silly to me that the major religions have suddenly become 'respectable' and refuse to acknowledge their dubious pasts. The people who followed Jesus for instance were probably all illiterate and also believed that the earth was flat and that disease came from bad odours.

Gzus,It is a tradition in Judaism to rewrite Torah Scroll once each year. There is a special person whose only purpose in life is to do all of this tedious work by hand! (I'm not talking about every printed version of Torah, just the Torah Scroll which is kept in a Synagog). Now the Torah Scroll (Five Books of Moses) contains 305,408 letters (in hebrew of course). If only one out of these many letters is missing or in the wrong place the whole Scroll becomes invalid and cannot be used. The person must redo everything by hand from scratch. (imagine making a mistake on a last page... )Here's the interesting part. The Holy Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed by Romans in 2nd Century A.D and Jews were dispersed thru out the the world. They split in two different groups so to speak, Ashkenazi Jews and Sephardic Jews, first settled around europe (what now is France, Germany, Poland ...) the later in countries such as Spain, Portugal, Turkey, etc. These two sepparate groups of jews continued to practice Judaism, however their traditions were different (not dramatically but to some degree). But Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews kept rewriting Torah Scroll each year as the jewish law requires it. This continued for hundreds and hundreds of years. In the year 1948 as we all know the State of Israel was established once again. Jews from all over the world (what was left of them) poured back to Israel. The surviving Torah Scroll from Germany (Ashkenaz) which was hidden during Holocust was brought into Jerusalem, Scrolls from othe countries in particular Iraq (Sephardic)and other Arab countries were also brought to Jerusalem. When these Scrolls where compared guess what....? Every one of them contained 305,408 letters ALL in the SAME place. (the name Gzus was not in any of them ). About 1800 years and not only it contained all words but not a single missing letter!That is how I know that when I go to Temple and look at the Torah Scroll... it has all the original words with original spelling just like the version #1 (no matter who wrote it, G-d or people)Now why do Jews have this law to rewrite Scroll every year in a first place? That's a whole other topic.Shalom Aleihemps.. I cannot speak for Christian New Testament, because I know nothing of how they keep track of it.[This message has been edited by NoBias, 02-10-2003]

Rewriting the whole Torah script every year? Wow! I didn't know Jews have such a tradition. Do you have Torah memorizers as well?

Not one word ever writen has ever been writen by God.Most of the words attributed directly to God were uttered by Saints and Prophets who oftentimes were "in the spirit" at the time of revelation.In ancient days records of these visions and messages were saved and passed on at some expense. There value thus gives them some credence and our evaluations give them life and meaning. Logic gives them truth.Regards
DL

GIA,
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